I feel like I also need to echo (and repeat) the Heart of the Swarm recommendation. The new matchmaking system walks you through how to play from slow training games to vs. AI before opening up to unranked and ranked play. Back in WoL, I was terrible (SC2 is really my first RTS), but now I'm definitely getting better and feel confident that I can hold my own in ladder games (once I get myself ranked).

Whoever revamped that system deserves a raise/promotion.

"A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory. LLAP"

Yeah they do. I find Elite enough of a challenge that I don't really need people. I "only" win about 3/5 of my games against the Elite AI and since I can just let it randomly pick a map and race to play against, it's like laddering without all the icky "glhf" interaction.

I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do, I do not do. But what I hate, I do.

Don't forget the Arcade. If you buy Starcraft 2 then you are literally getting hundreds of other games for free, at least until they launch the marketplace. I have a lot of fun with some of these games, especially the "tug of war" maps.

Khali wrote:Due to health reasons it looks like I am going to be stuck at home for a extended period. Since physical labor is out of the question right now and I need to keep my mind busy I thought I would pick up a couple of strategy games to add to my collection. I used to be big into strategy games several years ago. Not so much lately because they all seemed to be getting more and more complicated to the point you can't keep track of everything that's going on in them. I have a good collection of Strategy games but I am looking to add a few before I give that category of games a rest permanently. The three that put me off Strategy games were Earth 2042, Sins of a Solar Empire, and Hearts of Iron.

One I did enjoy playing a lot was Age of Empires 2. They are going to release a updated version called Age of Empires 2 HD. I can pre purchase AoE2 HD alone, for $18 or get a bundle that includes AoE 3 for $28. I know nothing about Age of Empires 3. Is it worth the extra $10?

I am also looking at the Command & Conquer™ The Ultimate Collection from Origin. I played all the C&C games up to Tiberian Sun then left off until Generals was released. I also picked up Renegade but I don't consider it belonging with the strategy C&C games since it was a FPS. Any thoughts on the collection being worth $30?

Any other recommendations for Strategy games that would be worth the time and money?

Of the 3 games you sighted the only one that I like or have heard of was SINS, that is an amazing game but its also scary how big it is and how long a match can take. Today you can use youtube to learn tourney technics for popular games. My favorite strategy games that I still play:

Star Craft 2War Craft 3Rise of Nations 1Shogun Total War 2RUSESupreme Commander 1 & 2 (1 is just so poorly optimized.)Dawn of War 2Company of HeroesHome World 2 World In Conflict

Blizzard games are awesome for a highly competitive online arena. Relic games(dawn of war, company of heroes) maintain a health community that is far less cut throat than Blizzard games. I don't know what the RUSE community is doing or if there still is one, that and world in conflict are the 2 most under appreciated games of last generation if you ask me. Supreme commander 1 & 2 are going to punish your hardware, don't know what online for those ever looked like just LANed it up for them. Home world is the best space strategy game ever. Sadly online is pretty much toast. If you can get some friends to LAN it with you its a blast, and there are some AMAZIGN mods for that game.

That probably holds true for any large franchise that once was a small and very dedicated and very vocal community. Same thing goes on in Battlefield. OMG, no commander, the game is ruined. BF2 was soo much better. But when it all comes down to it, most of the people are still there playing like never before as well as gathering lots of more people in to it. Somebody said it very, very well. Heard it on a podcost not long ago. Had to google it to find out who though.

"The reason people find it so hard to be happy is that they always see the past better than it was, the present worse than it is, and the future less resolved than it will be." ~ Marcel Pagnol

Aphasia wrote:That probably holds true for any large franchise that once was a small and very dedicated and very vocal community. Same thing goes on in Battlefield. OMG, no commander, the game is ruined. BF2 was soo much better. But when it all comes down to it, most of the people are still there playing like never before as well as gathering lots of more people in to it. Somebody said it very, very well. Heard it on a podcost not long ago. Had to google it to find out who though.

"The reason people find it so hard to be happy is that they always see the past better than it was, the present worse than it is, and the future less resolved than it will be." ~ Marcel Pagnol

such a true quote. I don't reflect on the past much because I have no power to effect it. I dream of the future and concentrate on the present. Truly happy people spend little to no time reflecting and focus on what is in front of them. Strangely successful people operate much in the same way.

Star craft 2 still has a mp community in the first game that is unaffected by the expansion so I'm confused. Is he referencing the major patches and balancing, that is what happens in mp games, the good ones atleast.

kamikaziechameleon wrote:such a true quote. I don't reflect on the past much because I have no power to effect it. I dream of the future and concentrate on the present. Truly happy people spend little to no time reflecting and focus on what is in front of them. Strangely successful people operate much in the same way.

I don't know -- surely nostalgic reminiscing is a waste of time, but it's important to look behind us to be happy, so you can remember how bad things used to be. I realize this is heresy in the nostalgia-heavy older-gamers community, but honestly, old games are by and large terrible in comparison to newer games (with notable exceptions, of course.) That's not their fault, really; it's just because videogame design was in its infancy -- not to mention various technological limitations. They were fine in their day, but there's just no reason to play them now outside of shameless remembrance, which is fine, but let's call a spade a spade!

It goes outside the scope of this thread a bit, but as they say -- those who forget history are doomed to repeat it. It's very important to reflect on the past, but do so with an unbiased, objective eye. Look at the shallow games of yesteryear (Doom, anyone?) and stride forward away from them, lessons learned.

kamikaziechameleon wrote: Is he referencing the major patches and balancing, that is what happens in mp games, the good ones atleast.

No, I'm referencing the deconstruction and abysmal handling of WCS 2013, that caused the pros from Korea to be split between the US, EU and Korea scenes thus ending true professional competition and thereby my interest in the game. That is a very specific change not due to nostalgia.

I'm perfectly happy with the handling of patches etc.

Last edited by Game_boy on Thu May 02, 2013 5:29 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I can understand an intellectual dislike of how Blizzard handled WCS (although it is the first one, and seemed a little rushed, so I'm sure that like the game itself it will be 'patched') but...unless you're a pro gamer who was expecting to do well in the WCS, I don't see why that would make you quit the game if you still enjoy playing it.

Last edited by MadManOriginal on Fri May 03, 2013 1:12 am, edited 1 time in total.

MadManOriginal wrote:I can understand an intellectual dislike of how Blizzard handled WCS (although it is the fuirst one, and seemed a little rushed, so I'm sure that like the game itself it will be 'patched') but...unless you're a pro gamer who was expecting to do well in the WCS, I don't see why that would make you quit the game if you still enjoy playing it.

Because the only reason for me to play it was because of excitement of the tournament circuit. I had a subscription to GSL, MLG and OGN, and watched IPL and IEM. They've all be subsumed into three regional leagues: one Korean league missing key talent and two foreign leagues with extremely sparse talent, worse casters, and a lot more meaningless games.

The day of the announcement I got a $100 refund from GSL and deleted HotS, I did actually follow through with the quitting and haven't looked back except to see if they've reverted (they haven't).

I think a few of those leagues could from a production standpoint get some good by taking a look at the dreamhack open here in Sweden. Atracts enough attention from decent pro, and casters, not to mention they have a free HD stream available via twitch. No subscription crap. Of course, I could watch most of the final on national television in 1080p but that I don't expect from overseas just yet.